lib·er·tar·i·an
n.
1. One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state.
2. One who believes in free will.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

biased journalism: was kebitigolawa bus a military target ?

after yesterday's terrorist suicide bomb targeting innocents, certain foreign correspondents (from afp and reuters specifically) took it upon themselves to make a totally unfounded judgment about terrorist's targeting criteria. they said that ltte has not targeted civilians in recent years ( even they cannot deny earlier horrors of pussies) limiting themselves to military targets. they went on to say that this targeting may be a retaliation for military operations.

of course this kind of biased pro terrorist reporting is nothing new. as i and others have pointed out, racists like simon gardner of reuters and bbc' sri lankan section regularly and repeatedly engage in this sort of reporting. in addition to such white washing of terrorists, such reporters engage in several other forms of biased journalism when it comes sri lanka; racist equation of tamils with terrorists, unquestioning acceptance of ltte's false claim to be representative of tamils, wrong identification of gosl as "sinhalese" (when it fact all the major democratic minority parties are in it), and repetition of absurd white van conspiracy theories of terrorists among others.

so what are we, as ordinary sri lankans opposed terrorism, to do to counter them ?

well for a start, speak out when you see such reports, write about them, and openly condemn them. write to the editors or administrators of mainstream news outsets (be they newspapers, tv stations, or websites) that publish this kind of reporting. most have feedback options, use them. just state the facts and why the report is inaccurate, simply. don't worry too much about english. be authentic.

such write backs matter because generally people who run mainstream news organizations and websites want to preserve their reputations and credibility. as people who have worked in news organizations will know pro israeli organizations and individuals (rightly) send letters by the dozens when there is even a hint of an inaccuracy in reports about israel in any newspaper anywhere in world. we cannot match that, but we can start. in any case reports about sri lanka are comparatively rare, so any letter you write will ultimately help induce people who write and publish, to think twice and check facts in the long term.

-- blog reactions to terrorist bombing bloggers have reacted in various ways; some merely acted as reporters, a lot expressed shock and horror, some have been sober and solid in their analysis, others (like cerno) have made valid points about our psychological non reaction to bombs (though it must be stated that most ppl i know were genuinely concerned and hardly indifferent, even though or because of, like me, most have experienced bombs at first hand).

anyway the peacenik bloggers were "oh so horrified", and after blaming mahinda buffalo, chithanaya, militray, and even the public ( but never the terrorist pussies who according to them will "love peace" if given the opportunity - really !) want us to appease terrorist so that we get "peace". they as usual forget to mention that such a course will involve giving up principles of democracy, human rights, justice, and freedom. similarly they forget millions who will have to suffer a living death under ltte if there was such an appeasement. to peacniks those people (or anyone outside their colombo/foreign cocoons for that matter) are not human.

i was tempted to challenge them in their own blogs but unfortunately am busy at the moment. however as soon as i get some free time i will write a post going through a selection of their posts in detail and examining their confused logic and attitudes.

Anon, repeating that sentence all over SL blogs, will not help making it happen. You are a simple minded idiot, with a brain, equal in size to Singapore (I mean, comparatively to China. Malaysia)

S'nutt. Me too observed the blog reaction to these incidents. Unfortunately, I am not able to write anything due to some other reasons. As you predicted when you first commented on my blog (about a year and a half ago), "every blogger will have to give it up, due to one reason or another". So, I have more than one reason to do away with blogging. It's not in my list of priorities anymore. How ever, I do read every thing come up on Kottu feed. And I comment, less often than those days. This is one such rare occasion. (I guess I'm not blogging my self, on your site :-) This is just a comment)

I think the reactions are "as expected". Scourage! as usual, view it from his regular window. The Scourge! thinking "Every bad thing started happening after 16th November 2005"

Others? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I'd rather not comment. I wonder what would Ravana have to say about this. But I guess, just like me, he's too having problems in finding time to blog.

Every single word, I said about the "Evacuating tamils from Colombo lodges" has now proven true. Every single blogger, who were against the gov's decision to send home those suspicious buggers, should be held liable for the bomb blast in Nugegoda. Includes, Indi, Ravana, Whistleblower, David Blacker and many more. Those who wanted to keep "as many as Tamils" inside Colombo lodges, "without a proper reason". Both the bomb attacks day before yesterday, was planned and carried out by people lodged at those lodges. During last few weeks, the number of North Eastern Tamils, checking in to these lodges has sky rocketed. No one knows the reason, why they come to Colombo. But the Police can't do anything, because Pakayasoththi and Kumar Rupasinghe is there for the rescue. And a whole bunch of Sri Lankan bloggers to defend them.

"after yesterday's terrorist suicide bomb targeting innocents, certain foreign correspondents (from afp and reuters specifically) took it upon themselves to make a totally unfounded judgment about terrorist's targeting criteria. they said that ltte has not targeted civilians in recent years"

All those Ranil=LTTE supporting foreigners (media/UN/ICRC/oslo)should be thrown out of SriLanka.Koti Hybrid mongrels like David Blacker should be deported to Portugal.

Tamils should be deported enmass to TamilNadu.Those who are left should be executed completely(males) and employed for entertaining our soldiers(girls). All the depopulated areas of NE should be colonised by Sinhala farmers. A few loyal Tamils like Douglas ,Pillaiyan,Karuna and Anandsangaree may be allowed to stay, but without all the pomp and weapons which they are accustomed to.

I pray to all Sinhalese to pressure the Govt and Gota to wipe out LTTE and Tamil MF maggots and at same time employ these policies fast, we have little time left. The International Community has supported us completely till now, but if Bush goes we may not get a chance to implement above policies.LMSSAO!

"OaO Asithri aka Scorpion" - I disagree with some of your points but what I do agree on is settling Sinhalese in the north and the east. In my opinion this is the ONLY way to break the backbone of tamil separatism. Once the LTTE is wiped out, the Sinhalese need to be settled in as many districts as possible. They need to be made a majority in the Trincomalee district. And in Vavunia, Mannar and Mullaitivu at least.

Man I totally agree with u sitting nut! I read that news report at the bottom it said "it would be a rare departure for the LTTE to attack civilians" or some crap like that. I was like WHAT THE FUCKING HELL??? IS THIS FOR REAL?? I think it was an AP report - the one that always has that line about discrimination against Tamils. Who the fuck writes them? Is it some asshole sitting in the editors desk in Delhi?

"OaO Asithri aka Scorpion" is an employee of a prominent NGO that S/Nut regularly attacks for being "Peacenik" and Pro LTTE. Several of them decided to write these comments with ridiculously extreme views that even JHU does not espouse. They want to paint S/nut as a racist.You can understand the malice they feel against S/Nut by their resorting to such tactics.

Don't be mislead by such tactics. Everyone knows that S?Nut is very vocal against people who identify Tamils with LTTE and has called people like that racists again and again.

I think i have to agree with Elidaravva. "OaO Asithri aka Scorpian" is a guy who posts in several SL-related sites with rather extreme views, but not as ridiculous as this. Also he uses "Scorpian aka OaO Asithri", not the other way around, and *he does log in* when he posts in blogspot blogs. I think someone imitated his language and used his name trying to kill two birds in one stone.

thanks for the comments everyonei have dealt with many points and comments made here in the next two posts in this blog. so please read them. rest i will reply to later when i get some more free time . thanks again for patience.

ren & stimpy: video i linked in next post is the original released by the mod. others in youtube or elsewhere are copies made from that.